Confidence Slipping … I Wonder Why

According to a new poll, the American people think we are heading in the wrong direction as a country.

Public Opinion Strategies just released results of a new survey that can’t be very comforting to the Obama administration: “Just 31 percent of Americans say the country is headed in the right direction, while 55 percent say it’s off on the wrong track. That’s a dramatic change from last month when a slight plurality of Americans said the nation was headed in the right direction — 45 percent-43 percent, and it’s also the first slippage in mood since Obama was elected.”

I wonder why.

Let’s see. The CIA director just announced that he was stopping a secret program that was set up to kill the bastards who planned and supported the Sept. 11 attacks and who have declared holy war against the United States of America.

Democrats are outraged, but not for the reason you might think. They seem to be against the program. Amazing. I thought killing people who want to kill a lot of Americans was one of the things the CIA was supposed to do.

Democrats are outraged that the program was top-secret. Huh? Don’t you think that the only way this program would succeed was if it were top-secret? I sure as hell don’t want Congress spilling the beans on secret plans to kill the top terrorists in the country. What are these guys thinking?

In the meantime, House Democrats are busy trying to pass much higher taxes on people who create most of the jobs in this country. Small-business owners are facing an 8 percent tax to help pay for the new government-run healthcare plan. They are also planning a new surcharge on the so-called rich, many of whom are small-business owners. And they are making plans to tax people for what they drink and what they eat. They have already taxed folks on what they smoke.

This is on top of a cap-and-trade vote, which, if implemented, will put a tax on how much energy people use. So if you want to turn on the air-conditioner, get ready to pay more for the privilege.

In any event, the mood is souring in the country because jobs are not coming back. The president’s so-called stimulus bill has proven to be a complete bust. The Fed is now predicting that unemployment will hit 10 percent and beyond sometime this year. At every turn, the president’s party is making it harder for small businesses (or big business, for that matter) to hire new workers. If we do have an economic recovery, expect it to be a jobless one.

That will only make the mood darker for voters come next year.

The president’s poor form in throwing out the first pitch didn’t inspire much confidence either. I am glad he wore a White Sox jacket, but no self-respecting White Sox fan would throw the ball as weakly as Mr. Obama did at the All-Star game.